Characterising the properties of the atmospheric emission at Teide Observatory in the 10-20 GHz range with QUIJOTE data

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Chappard, Apolline, Rubiño-Martín, José Alberto, Santos, Ricardo Tanausú Génova
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866915571109462016
author Chappard, Apolline
Rubiño-Martín, José Alberto
Santos, Ricardo Tanausú Génova
author_facet Chappard, Apolline
Rubiño-Martín, José Alberto
Santos, Ricardo Tanausú Génova
contents QUIJOTE is a CMB experiment composed of two telescopes, QT1 and QT2, located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. The MFI instrument (2012-2018), installed on QT1, observed the sky at four frequency bands (11, 13, 17, and 19 GHz) with one degree angular resolution. Its successor, MFI2, began operations in 2024 and operates in the same bands. This paper has two main goals: first, to characterise the atmospheric conditions at Teide Observatory to improve existing models at these frequencies, and second, to empirically characterise atmospheric turbulence using QUIJOTE MFI and MFI2 observations. This work has implications for both atmospheric physics and CMB studies and can support future reanalyses of MFI data or the preparation of upcoming instruments such as the Tenerife Microwave Spectrometer. We used data from GPS antennas, the STELLA observatory, and radio soundings to derive median profiles and distributions of key atmospheric parameters for 2012-2018. MFI data were analysed to compute atmospheric structure functions at 17 and 19 GHz and to study the correlation properties of the atmospheric signal through cross-correlation between horns at the same frequency. MFI2 observations were used to estimate the atmospheric power spectrum and compare it with the structure function derived from MFI data. The water vapour density profile follows an exponential decay with a characteristic half-height of about 1000 m. Median PWV in 2012-2018 is 3.3 mm. For high PWV conditions, the structure function agrees with the Kolmogorov turbulence model. The slope of the power spectrum also matches the model prediction, within the frequency range limited by the outer scale and instrument noise. Finally, from the correlation function, we find that atmospheric conditions remain stable for about 1-2 hours.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_19878
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Characterising the properties of the atmospheric emission at Teide Observatory in the 10-20 GHz range with QUIJOTE data
Chappard, Apolline
Rubiño-Martín, José Alberto
Santos, Ricardo Tanausú Génova
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
QUIJOTE is a CMB experiment composed of two telescopes, QT1 and QT2, located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. The MFI instrument (2012-2018), installed on QT1, observed the sky at four frequency bands (11, 13, 17, and 19 GHz) with one degree angular resolution. Its successor, MFI2, began operations in 2024 and operates in the same bands. This paper has two main goals: first, to characterise the atmospheric conditions at Teide Observatory to improve existing models at these frequencies, and second, to empirically characterise atmospheric turbulence using QUIJOTE MFI and MFI2 observations. This work has implications for both atmospheric physics and CMB studies and can support future reanalyses of MFI data or the preparation of upcoming instruments such as the Tenerife Microwave Spectrometer. We used data from GPS antennas, the STELLA observatory, and radio soundings to derive median profiles and distributions of key atmospheric parameters for 2012-2018. MFI data were analysed to compute atmospheric structure functions at 17 and 19 GHz and to study the correlation properties of the atmospheric signal through cross-correlation between horns at the same frequency. MFI2 observations were used to estimate the atmospheric power spectrum and compare it with the structure function derived from MFI data. The water vapour density profile follows an exponential decay with a characteristic half-height of about 1000 m. Median PWV in 2012-2018 is 3.3 mm. For high PWV conditions, the structure function agrees with the Kolmogorov turbulence model. The slope of the power spectrum also matches the model prediction, within the frequency range limited by the outer scale and instrument noise. Finally, from the correlation function, we find that atmospheric conditions remain stable for about 1-2 hours.
title Characterising the properties of the atmospheric emission at Teide Observatory in the 10-20 GHz range with QUIJOTE data
topic Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19878